Oil to trade between $70 and $75/b through year-end: Kuwait official

Oil prices will be rangebound between $70 and 75/b through the end of the year, Kuwaiti acting oil undersecretary Sheikh Talal al-Sabah said.

Front-month ICE Brent futures were trading at $71.83/b at 1658 GMT.

Such oil prices were “acceptable” for producing and consuming countries alike, Sabah said, according to a report by Kuwaiti state news agency Kuna.

“The current prices should serve as an incentive for major oil producing nations to ratchet up energy investments,” the report quoted Sabah as saying.

Kuwait, OPEC’s fifth largest producer, pumped 2.78 million b/d in July, up from 2.71 million b/d in June, according to the latest S&P Global Platts OPEC survey.

OPEC has agreed with Russia and nine other non-OPEC allies on a 1 million b/d production increase to offset expected output losses from US sanctions on Iran, which are set to snap back in November, and Venezuela’s continued economic crisis.

OPEC produced 32.66 million b/d in July, up 340,000 b/d from June, the Platts survey found.
Source: Platts